Gang, I may have some very disturbing news. I took my second 4th gen to get the lower support replaced and examined the one that was removed and it seems that the previous owner already replaced it with an OEM one. It has the third plate in it and it still rotted out. This is very disturbing as it is rotting from inside out. See the pics below..







Right now, I am thinking of a way to prevent this from happening again...

 

Winter road salts wreak havoc on cars. Probably coating it with something (when you get our replacement) should help prolong it's lifespan.

Also, rinsing the underbody area of the car to knock off the road salts will help, too.

 

I don't believe salt is the concern. water is going inside and staying in the middle of the support and not finding its way out.

 

POR-15 and http://www.ruststop.net/ruststop%C2%AE-rs-5/

 

i typicaly spray some touch-up paint (blue paint) helps out until i scrape the crossmember lol

 

I replaced mine last year, cause the rust ate through mine

 

there is rust preventing wax that you can spray, which can also be sprayed inside the support. and all other kinds of undercoatings that can be sprayed to prolong its life.

 

I spray painted mine

 

i think you want to spray honeycoat in there. im about to replace mine and thats what i plan to do. if there is water not draining ill just drill some holes down there and coat the bare metal from where i drilled.

 

What I am thinking of doing is spraying liquid foam inside of it from the drainhole in the middle of the support and let it fill out the entire inside of it. The body shop painted it already but I been thinking about this for a while and liquid foam is my best bet.

 

Eastwood.com has a frame rust prevention coating and converter that works very well i used it after i did the support repair and mine will never rust out again i used 1/4" steel plates to replace the support and stainless hardware

 

U pose a interesting point.

Its raining today. I am going to check if rainwater has collected in the lower radiator support when i get home from work and report back

If i was you, i wdnt go poking a bunch of holes in the rad support. Each hole introduces a potential weak point for the radiator support. One or two shdnt hurt, but it could start to rust at that hole prematurely. Make sure to spray some rust inhitor or paint on the rad support if you decide to poke holes.

 

When I installed a new OEM lower radiator support earlier this year I sprayed on several coats of rubberized coating on that new support. I also dropped the crossmember bar and t-bar and after wire brushing them I threw on rust converter and rubberized coating. I had thoughts of clogging the holes on this new support but I'm sure the rubber will keep it safe for several years.

If I ever see rust developing down the road I'll just touch it up again. To access the lower radiator support you just need to drop the engine shields and remove the bumper.

 

Well what I have already done is cut off the front half of both engine splash shields so no water sits there that mayhelp corrode the support from rainwater.